Emerald Provides Super-Fast Processing

The UK's most powerful GPU-based supercomputer, "Emerald", was unveiled last month at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).

Emerald, a GPGPU system that utilises NVIDIA's Tesla accelerator technology, can be used alongside the "Iridis 3" system being hosted by the University of Southampton, to give businesses and academics unprecedented access to a super-fast processing capability.

Using the newly-available technology researchers will soon tackle areas ranging from healthcare (Tamiflu and swine flu); astrophysics (real-time pulsar detection application for the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array Project to deploy the world's most powerful radio telescope), bioinformatics (analysis and statistical modelling of whole-genome sequencing data); climate change modelling; complex engineering systems; simulating 3G and 4G communications networks and developing new tools for processing and managing medical images.

The unveiling of Emerald also marked the official launch of the e-Infrastructure South Consortium which comprises four of the UK's leading universities - Bristol, Oxford, University College London and Southampton.

The Consortium has collaborated with the Department of Scientific Computing at RAL to form the e-infrastructure South Centre for Innovation which will own and operate both supercomputers. The Consortium will also share access between the partners, providing an infrastructure for the development of data-driven applications, simulation and software as well as training to create the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Both supercomputers have been funded by a £3.7 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and form part of a £145 million Government investment in e-infrastructure.